2/21/15

Kyomu Senki (The Void Chronicles), created/penned by Ken Ishikawa, is a manga that can be considered the sister series to Getter Robo Saga. Like Getter Robo saga, Kyomu Senki is a compilation of a number of Ken Ishikawa manga series that fit into the same continuity. Kyomu Senki includes such series as Kyomu Senshi Miroku, Skull Killer Jakioh along with its direct sequel Jakioh Bakuretsu, Tiger of 5,000 Light Years and a few other manga series. The edition of Kyomu Senki that we'll be scanlating is the 2002 Futabasha 5 volume compilation (the most recent printing of this series so far and the last before Ken Ishikawa's unfortunate death).

Translating and typesetting this series for us is someone new - he goes by the name Takeru Kyori and he's been doing a bang-up job at localizing Kyomu Senki! Thanks to him, we can start this project without waiting to complete Shin Mazinger Zero. A true hero for Dynamic Pro fans! And of course, I have to thank HappyScans! for their help on this project and for miraculously getting their hands on this manga series in the first place! I had been trying to get Kyomu Senki shipped out of Japan for years to no avail (it would run hundreds of dollars) and HappyScans! stepped up and did the impossible. Thanks so much, guys!

Scanning this series has been a challenge in one major way. The books, which are long out of print, are old and used. Consequently, there's some sort of... gunk... on the pages. It's a multitude of faint yellowish stains all over each page. I really have no idea what it is and I'm cursing the original owner. Anyway, I tried to clean the gunk as best as I could without compromising the art in any way but you're still going to see it on the pages, with some being worse than others. Hopefully it shouldn't detract from your enjoyment too much.

And one last note - this chapter features a lot of Buddhist mantras which we have left in their original form. The few of them that had a Japanese translation we have also translated into English. Anyway, that's about it! Enjoy the first chapter of Kyomu Senki!!

UPDATE: I've now got a proper series description for Kyomu Senki thanks to Takeru. Here it is:

In Confucian Era 14276, a violent showdown unfolds in
the space surrounding Planet Lagra. And with that, the story begins.
Unfolding on Earth and in far-off galaxies, in the past, the future, and
across dimensions, the curtain has risen on the final war between light
and darkness. A great, galactic epic spanning the author’s career
begins here!

Kyomu Senki is made up mainly of four series: “The
Tiger of 5000 Light Years” serialized in 1980-82. “Kyomu Senshi Miroku”
and “Jaki-oh Bakuretsu”, both of which started serialization in 1987,
just a few months apart. Lastly, “Skull Killer Jaki-oh”, a mech series
set in the 20th century that originally started in 1990.

Along
with the four main series, it also includes four short stories: “New
Rashoumon”, “Ninja Arts at Honnou Temple: The Black Magic of Koji
Kashin”, “The Strange Living Dimension, Dogura”, and “The Dogura War
Chronicles”.

2/17/15

Sorry I'm late with this release, chapter 5 absolutely kicked my butt in terms of redraws. It seems like the difficulty of editing a chapter increases with its awesomeness. A welcome challenge, I say. This chapter lives up to its redraws and I hope you'll all enjoy it as much as I did. And of course, I've got to give my undying gratitude to the translating prowess of the illustrious OtherSideofSky and our fantastic friends HappyScans!!

I'll start releasing Shin Mazinger Zero volume 4 probably next week since I'm out of translations for now and waiting on the next batch (the transition into the volume after next will be smoother, we just hit a logistic hiccup with this one). In the meanwhile, I'm going to finally be able to get to that special release I needed to release weeks ago and I'll be able to get some more scanning in during the down time for future releases. So you can still expect a non-Shin Mazinger Zero release later this week.

2/7/15

Translated by the wondrous OthersideofSky and brought to you in-joint with HappyScans! And it's thanks to you guys out there that we were able to make this release. Truly, thank you for everything. You're the best!

Now, I had mentioned a surprise release that was supposed to predate this one but I'm afraid it's going to have to wait a few more days. I got caught up trying to get Shin Mazinger Zero out before the week was up and it left me little time to wrestle with the newer project which in its early stages is difficult to complete due to a couple technical details I'll get into once I finally release it next week. Sorry! But you can be sure it'll be out soon. Also, I'm resetting the donation counter for the new week but we're still going to be at 62/50 for our donation goal because you guys are so freaking awesome and I can't thank you all enough. So you can expect the end of Shin Mazinger Zero volume 3 sometime next week. See you then!

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